Alain Grandemange Photography : Europe and Asia : France

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France Galleries

Annecy France : Annecy is a city in the Rhône-Alpes region of east central France, on the shores of Lake Annecy, 22 miles south of Geneva. This is my second time visiting Annecy (the last time was in 1998). I wanted to revisit it with Liz and my two girls since it struck me as being so utterly beautiful the first time.
This is simply a stunning city, however be aware that traffic during the peak season can be a little nuts. Missing an exit or making a wrong turn can easily add an hour to your trip (as we found out).

Provence France : During the second leg of our sub-vacation in France, we drove from burgundy to a small town outside Avignon (Les Angles). There is truely nothing worth seeing in Les Angles but it was an affordable stay during prime festival season and central to all the areas we wanted to visit.

During this leg, we wore ourselfs out. By the end of the 3 days we were Done.

We had a primary goal on this leg, and that was to go to Chateauneuf-du-Pape and taste/buy some great wines. We did this by the morning of June 23rd, so we spent the next day and a half discovering Provence. The highlight was the town of Gordes, but the entire area is beautiful.

Provence France

Burgundy France : Below are a selection of hundreds of pictures from a trip to burgundy during the summer of 2007. We stayed in Vosne-Romanee which is, i believe, the heart of burgundy wines. We had a car and simply drove around stopping off in small towns to visit. In the world of wines, the 'Cote d'Or' includes the cote de beaune and the cote de nuits stretching from Dijon to Santenay and is home to some of the best Pinot Noirs I have ever tasted.
While we were there the weather was good, but not great. Europe has had unseasonal rainfall. This mixed with the lack of sun will make for a difficult, if not interesting year for wine producers this year.

An important note, tastings are done in locations that specify 'degustation' on their sign. Pay close attention to their hours of operation; often these are homes and they get really upset with american or canadian tourists interupting their 2 hour lunches. Also, when you go into a 'cave' and don't know what to do, simply tell the greeter that. Let them know if you're a novice at wine tasting. Learn to speak the language of wine. A few that we met took the time to explain the wine making process, the differences or nuances in flavours from year to year, etc... The french are a very proud, if not arrogant, people and don't like being rushed or bullied. They enjoy teaching people that want to be taught. Take advantage of it.

An important note to canadian travellers, you will often get the cold sholder when going in for 'degustation' once you tell them you're canadians. That's because they know you are only allowed 2 bottles back without having to pay crazy (and unfair) duties. We were treated extremely well, but only after explaining that I had family in France where I would stock wine... not that i ended up buying more wine, but the hospitality was much better.

Finally, some of these 'caves' have people that only speak french working them. Make sure you have enough awareness of the language to get by.

Burgundy France